The German Federal Police announced today that they have shut down “one of the world’s largest darknet child pornography platforms” and have launched a series of raids to arrest four members in mid-April.
According to the German police statement, the darknet platform called “Boystown” (Boystown), which began to appear in 2019 and has more than 400,000 members, “was set up for the purpose of exchanging child pornography worldwide”.
The statement said the dark web forum provides a channel for users to contact each other and allows them to exchange child pornography images and videos, which even include “serious sexual abuse of young children”.
German police launched seven raids in the country and arrested three men between the ages of 40 and 64. Another German male suspect has been detained in the South American country of Paraguay at the request of Berlin, pending the issuance of an international arrest warrant for his repatriation by a German court in Frankfurt.
German police said three of the men are accused of running the platform as administrators, providing technical support and teaching members how to avoid detection by authorities; another man is “one of the platform’s most active users.
Investigators said the arrests, which were initiated in Germany and lasted several months, were coordinated and directed by Europol, with support from law enforcement authorities in the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States and Canada.
Following the raid, the site, including Boys Town and other related online forums, was removed from the network.
Recent Comments